CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Setting its sights on
delivering innovative
prognostic and predictive assays for early-stage, tissue-based cancers, a development
and commercialization partnership has been
forged between Metamark Genetics, a
privately held oncology molecular diagnostic company, and Munich, Germany-based
Definiens, a leading health,
imaging and intelligence firm.

The agreement, announced June 30, calls for Metamark to
combine
its proprietary multiplex protein detection platform with the image
analysis technology developed jointly with Definiens.

If successful, the net result of this American-German
collaboration will enable scientists to detect tiny tumors before
aggressive
treatment is necessary. This earlier-than-ever diagnosis is not only
life-saving, but also life-changing in this age of personalized
medicine.

"Definiens is a clear world leader in quantitative
digital pathology and in the
analysis of biomarkers in tissue image data," Eric
Devroe, vice president of business and strategy development at Metamark, said
in a press release.
"We see great synergy in combining Definiens' technology
and expertise with Metamark's unique understanding of tumor heterogeneity and
insight into
the molecular drivers regulating tumor formation and aggression.
We believe this partnership will enable us to co-develop and implement unique
and
important image analysis tools."

"The end results of our multiplex
immunofluorescent staining
will be analyzed with custom tools jointly developed by the Metamark and
Definiens teams," he says.

When Metamark first came up with the idea, Definiens was its
logical choice as a partner.

"The Metamark team recognized Definiens as a clear leader in
image analysis software and approached Definiens,"
Devroe says.

Although prostate cancer has been associated with the
importance of early detection, the partnership is structured
to broadly apply
to cancer and is not limited to specific tumor types, he says.

"The two teams
are developing the custom tools, which
Metamark will use for clinical validation of its diagnostic assays," Devroe
says. "The ultimate goal is the
validation and commercial delivery of
prognostic assays that will provide important customized, tumor-specific
information that will enable physicians
to guide their patients towards optimal
treatment choices at the time of diagnosis."

Metamark's
particular strength lies in its quantitative
diagnostic approach, which identifies and accounts for small regions of
molecularly aggressive cancer
cells within an otherwise indolent tumor. The
company is developing a portfolio of prognostic and predictive assays with the
ability to address the
"heterogeneous" nature of tumors not only
between one patient and the next, but also within an individual patient's
tumor.

Definiens has already made groundbreaking achievements in
the field of biomarker development based on its highly robust
and scalable
image analysis framework that enables scientists and clinicians to rapidly
extract comprehensive biomarker and morphology expression
profiles and to
identify a relevant subset of descriptors by correlating them against patient
outcomes, according to the company.

"Definiens is pleased to partner with Metamark
Genetics, and to incorporate our image and data analysis software
technology
into Metamark's pioneering oncology diagnostic offerings," Thomas
Colarusso, vice president of sales and operations at Definiens, said in
a news
release. "The capability to provide detailed readouts from tissue analysis
is opening up new gateways for developing diagnostic assays as we
enter the age
of personalized medicine."